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Is solar home energy enhancement available and cost efficient in Costa Rica? Beginning my research into possibly upgrading my new home in Playa Hermosa, Guancaste; with the addition of solar energy. Can anyone provide me with some insight, in terms of availability and approximate costs?
We spoke with Bruce,at [url=]www.solarcostarica.com[/url] and found his pricing good. I’m afraid I don’t have pricing info for you.
We didn’t follow up installing it though, as the project was ‘put on hold’.Many things need to be taken into account when determining the ultimate cost of the installation. That usually determines if a solar array is installed or not. Is the installation on your roof or a mounted installation on the ground? What direction does your roof face, what type of material is your roof? Whats the average electric demand of your house? What brand of panels/hardware do you want, etc. etc. Many things determine the cost, and thus, the feasability of a Solar Array, but on average, its more expensive to do it here. Not to say it shouldn’t be done..
In Costa Rica, expect about 50 – 100% higher cost then in the US. Do not expect any tax breaks or rebates. Look at it as a one time investment into your energy needs, instead of monthly installment payments. If SHTF, your gonna be the only guy with electric around.. and for years and years. However, Solar hot water heating is affordable and pretty easy to set up. A solar array to provide your electric needs is much more complex, and expensive. Let me explain a big reason why it costs more here then the US (besides the CR import taxes added to all the components in the system):
“Grid-Tie” is how most Solar Arrays are connected in the US. It is a direct connection to the power grid, so when your producing more electric then you are using you sell it back into the Grid, and you “Roll back” your meter. At night, when your not producing electric, you buy the electric back. This means you are using the “Grid” as your “Storage” medium; meaning the old fashioned way of battery banks, charge regulators, etc. would not be needed to store and release electric during the day and night.
In Costa Rica, ” Two Way Grid-tie” (The electric company buying back power produced by renewable energy producers) has not happened. That means you have to use the old fashioned way of storing your electric producing the day and using it at night: Battery banks. This component in the system adds additional cost. But you really have three options here:
“1) Battery backup system: A set (or “bank) of batteries, with a grid-tie power inversion system makes it possible to charge batteries while the grid is up. When there is a power outage or when voltage drops, the inverter senses this and immediately takes over the power supply, drawing power reserves from the battery bank until the grid power is restored or stabilizes. This provides an uninterruptible power supply and also ensures surge protection against grid power surges and brownouts that can damage sensitive and otherwise unprotected household electronics.
2) Grid-tie co-use systems. Proximity to an electrical grid makes it possible for homeowners to design systems that are less costly than stand-alone systems. Since it requires substantial capital investment in solar panels to ensure that peak power demands are covered, a grid-tie co-use system makes it possible to design a system for routine usage only and to depend on the grid for peak power demands and thereby achieve dramatic capital savings in the initial investment. The modular expandibility of alternative energy systems in general makes it possible to expand solar array capacity and to add additional components in stages to offset the overall capital investment of a stand-alone power system.
3) Grid-tie co-use variant. Since 220-Volt appliances require dramatically greater capital investment to achieve this power voltage distribution from alternative power supplies, it is possible to design a grid-tie system in which solar panels, batteries, and inverters provide for the entire 110-volt home power consumption, leaving 220-volt appliances to be powered by the grid. In this manner, an electrical dryer, hot water heater, stove, and air conditioning units would operate from the grid, while everything else operates off of solar power.”
Thanks everyone, your resposes were greatly appreciated. Your information gives me something to review and consider.
I’ve said elsewhere that we’ve had solar water heating systems on our homes since 1980 and would do it again and again. If your roof has decent sun exposure, it’s entirely feasible. In Costa Rica, with no freeze problem to deal with, the systems are simpler and require virtually no maintenance.
Our system, from Swissol in Belen which is near Santa Ana, is one of three they offer. In retrospect, I wish we’d used another of their designs.
They offer a two-panel/80 gallon storage tank system which is what we installed. They also have a one-panel/60 gallon tank design. In those two designs, the panels are on the roof (although they could be sidewall or yard mounted) and the tank, pump and controller are downstairs.
The design I wish now that we had gone with uses a single panel on the roof with an integral 53 gallon tank. It functions entirely by convection — no pump and a much simpler controller. All these systems have conventional 240VAC elements to heat water when the solar gain is insufficient.
Our house has the kitchen at one end and the baths and laundry at the other. That’s where our storage tank is. The waste of time and water to flush the hot water line to the kitchen is significant. What I wish we had done was to install a Swissol 53-gallon system on the roof above the kithen, near the point of use, and a second one above the bathrooms, again, near the points of use. The cost would have been the same.
soldier, if you’re serious about a hot tub (or whatever), solar heaters for those are available, too.
[quote=”soldier”]Is solar home energy enhancement available and cost efficient in Costa Rica? Beginning my research into possibly upgrading my new home in Playa Hermosa, Guancaste; with the addition of solar energy. Can anyone provide me with some insight, in terms of availability and approximate costs?[/quote]
Jeff Wang of http://www.wanzicka.com seems to know what he is talking about!Maybe he has suggestions for you. I know we will be looking into getting the solar energy pool pump from him.
I’m gonna agree here with Caliskatari on the premise of bang for your buck that you get from reading between the lines on his informative post. Unless you have a lot of additional money and just want to be green you won’t get much return (if any) for your investment with solar energy like you would in other countries. This seams silly to me for a country such as CR but I guess ICE has their own agenda and “green power” for homeowners is not on it. Maybe that will change? I have heard it’s been talked about and I will be researching it more when I get down next year. It’s still the right thing to do to be sure!
Like others mentioned though solar water heating is very efficient and with a low cost you can realize the return pretty quick (relatively speaking) and be green to boot! The companies already mentioned in this thread do solar water as well. (Another I have found… http://www.intitechsolar.com )
Here’s some food for thought though… If you can import building materials for a lesser duty than other items is it economical to import some of the solar power components yourself and utilize a CR company to install? If you were building a house and bringing in your household goods from the US you could upgrade from a 20’ to a 40’ container and add some of the bigger value items such as the inverters etc.. I’m just thinking out loud here… Maybe you have some insight Cali?
Also, try and talk to a contact at the CR branch of the Green Building Council. Maybe they have some advice and some contacts as well. The current executive director has a master in environmental engineering from the University of Florida and the CRGBC is dedicated to green and sustainable building.
http://www.crgbc.orgGood Luck!
Hot tubs were mentioned here and I have a question: In several homes we noted an outdoor “jacuzzi bathtub” instead of a standard hot tub. I am wondering if the high humidity causes additional maintenance or shortens the life of a regular hot tub.
Also, David….are the tanks themselves attached to your solar system installed in the house, or on your roof?
Typically, the solar collection panels are installed on the roof and the storage tank is located below, at or near ground level. That’s the type of system we installed in our homes in Michigan and North Carolina and what we have here in Costa Rica.
Swissol, the solar hot water system company in Belen, however, also sells a system that’s installed completely on the roof. The 53-gallon storage tank is integral to the panel. And the system works entirely by convection. There’s no circulating pump. The good part of this design is that it takes up no living space and requires energy only when the sun exposure is not adequate to heat the water. The bad part is that it adds quite a bit of weight to what your roof structure must bear.
Water weighs about eight pounds per gallon, so the water weight alone is around 425 pounds. My guess is that the tank and panel weight a good hundred pounds more. So to adequately prepare your roof structure for one of these systems would take a little engineering. Putting it directly over a bearing wall would help.
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